Lord of the Libraries by Mel Odom

madness.
    Juhg didn’t blame her. He couldn’t imagine how it would be to lie at the bottom of the Blood-Soaked Sea for hundreds of years. Still, the last place at the moment that he wanted to be was in her clutches.
    The woman cursed and pointed her blade at Craugh’s head. “Once you thought I was pretty.”
    “A long time ago,” Craugh agreed. “I was foolish. Now I am not.”
    Listening to the conversation and the flat way the wizard responded, Juhg knew that if he lived he was going to recommend The Language of Love by Rugahr Dahalson. Of course, he wasn’t going to mention that Rugahr had been poisoned while writing the sequel, Keeping Happiness in Your Harem.
    “Now you are even more foolish,” Ladamae said. “Perhaps even pathetic.” She shook her head. “You should not have cut your way inside Methoss.”
    “I had to see you.”
    “Better that you had not.”
    “Coming to see you seemed better than letting you simply drop to the bottom of the sea and lie there forever.”
    “Many things can change,” Ladamae said. “When you can live forever.”
    “Methoss,” Craugh said with a grim smile, “thought he could live forever. He couldn’t.” He paused. “Neither can you. Without protection.”
    Ladamae paused to think. Juhg watched her watching Craugh with her amethyst eyes. She was cunning and savage. Juhg saw that at once.
    “Why did you come here?” she asked finally.
    “To strike a bargain,” Craugh said.
    “Bargains are hard things, Craugh. You know that. Most times you give away more than you get, even though you think it will be the other way around or at least balance. We all took on burdens to bear when we sought after The Book of Time.”
    Craugh hunted for The Book of Time? Juhg couldn’t believe his ears.
    “We were all foolish then,” Craugh said.
    “No,” she said. “Just greedy. In the end, we weren’t clever enough, were we? Methoss became a bearded hoar-worm like some of the others. I got trapped in that gem. We both got immortality, of course, but the cost was far more than we thought.” She looked at the wizard. “And how is it you’re still alive, Craugh? After all these years?”
    “We all,” Craugh said, “had a price to pay for our part in the evil that was done when The Book of Time was brought into this world.”
    If Juhg hadn’t been hanging from the woman’s lizardlike tail and fighting for every breath he took, he knew he would have been listening with bated breath. What were the secrets that Craugh had been hiding? He’d never mentioned how he’d achieved the longevity he enjoyed.
    “Are you paying a price, Craugh? Truly?” The woman’s tone mocked him.
    “What do you think?” Craugh asked.
    “Methoss was told you had aligned yourself with the dwellers. With that precious Library of theirs. I thought that was unbelievable even though I knew you had a hand in its building. I thought you served your own purposes. Yet, here you stand. And you are searching for The Book of Time to aid the Grandmagister.”
    “Who woke Methoss?” Craugh asked.
    “It’s a pity you can’t ask him.”
    “I’m asking you.”
    “Maybe I’ll tell you.” Ladamae smiled. “And maybe I won’t.”
    “Do you know a man named Aldhran Khempus?”
    “Yes.”
    “He doesn’t have the power required to have wakened Methoss.”
    The woman shook her head. At the end of her tail, Juhg shook even more violently.
    “So someone else wakened Methoss,” Craugh concluded.
    “Yes.”
    “Who?” Craugh demanded.
    “What do I get if I tell you?”
    Indecision showed on Craugh’s bearded face. “Letting you go free from this place would be a horrible thing, Ladamae.” He nodded toward the pile of bones surrounding the crimson gem. “You feast on men. I see Methoss kept you fed.”
    She smiled as though embarrassed. “Methoss only caught me a few morsels now and again.”
    “Tell me who woke Methoss.”
    “And if I don’t?”
    Craugh eyed her levelly. Inside the